
How to Get Rid of Cigarette Smoke Odor
Let’s say you are about to list your home for sale, and you are trying to get the best possible price. You’ve decluttered and staged; you’ve repainted and spruced up the landscaping to improve curb appeal. However, your home has a lingering smoky smell that you know will scare off non-smoking buyers. If this is you, you’re probably wondering: can I rid my home of cigarette smoke odor, or is this odor trapped in my home for good? If the smell can be eradicated, how?
Understanding Cigarette Smoke Odor
You already knew cigarettes contain tobacco and nicotine, but you might not know that multiple other chemicals are present in each and every cigarette. These chemicals, when combined through the burning process, become sticky in a unique way that allows them seep into the pores of fabrics, upholstery, carpet, wallpaper and even your hair and skin. They don’t just coat the outside of these surfaces, but actually get inside the pores of almost every porous surface with which they come in contact.
Here’s a way to understand the way smoke seeps into the pores of the surfaces of your home. Have you ever walked outside when the humidity is high and realized your clothing became damp? Even though you could not see the moisture in the air, it still seeped into your clothing, weighing it down with tiny molecules of water. If you spent the entire day out in the high humidity, your clothing would become completely soaked.
Likewise, smoke odors seep into the porous surfaces of your home, and once deposited there, they remain trapped. Wiping the surface area with cleaners only removes the top layer of cigarette grime, leaving the odors trapped inside the porous materials of your home still there. Opening windows only brings in fresh air and does not actually release those odors or remove them from the home. That’s why you’ll notice that the odors remain when you close the windows. Without the fresh air from outside to minimize the awareness of the odors, the inside air becomes saturated with the odors trapped in those pores.
How Can I Remove Cigarette Smoke Odors?
Several factors affect the trapping and release of cigarette smoke odors. For example, have you ever noticed that the intensity of the smoke smell may increase on a rainy day? That’s because the increased humidity releases some of the odors, filling the indoor air with more of the smell of stale smoke. Humidity is only one of many factors that affect odors. Temperature is another factor that can be easily manipulated.
Professional odor removal companies use machines and processes that perform three tasks. First, they stimulate the opening of the pores of the porous surfaces in your home (typically through carefully monitored heating of the room to approximately 95 degrees fahrenheit). Once the pores have been opened so they can access the odor-causing molecules, they simultaneously trap and destroy the odor-causing molecules using technology like ozone generators. A good odor removal service will follow up with a gentle thermal fog of a pleasant scent to replace the bad odors with something you enjoy.
Can I Do This Myself?
Unfortunately, this sort of technology is used by professionals. To be effective, the home must be heated and the ozone generator run safely (you cannot be in the room with the machine while it is running; this is not a safe project to take on by yourself).
Other methods you find on the internet (wiping the affected area with vinegar or bleach or spraying a masking odor) do not actually remove the odors from the pores of the materials in your home. This is the sort of project you want to hand over to a professional—especially if you are trying to sell your home for top dollar or remove the smell for new tenants.
Need Charlotte Smoke Odor Removal Services?
If you need smoke odor removal services, we can put you in touch with a reputable company that can restore your property. We look forward to assist you with this process!
Article Summary
Quick question & answer: What is the best way to get rid of the cigarette smoke smell in my house?
You can get rid of the cigarette smoke smell in your house by having a professional odor removal company open pores of the porous surfaces in your home. Next, they’ll use an ozone generator to trap and destroy odor-causing molecules. Your odor removal service will likely then use a gentle scent to replace the bad smells with a better one.